A blog site for the anthology, A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 edited by Mark Pirie; foreword by Don Neely (HeadworX Publishers, Wellington, New Zealand, 2010). The blog features reviews and commentary on the book as well as New Zealand cricket poetry, reviews of New Zealand cricket books and other related material. The book's cover is by UK cricket painter Jocelyn Galsworthy.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

J H Haslam’s 1926 cricket sonnet on Jack Hobbs

A very good cricket poem I came across recently is by Rev. J H (Harry) Haslam (1874-1969) of the MethodistChurch in New Zealand, a completely forgotten poet in New Zealand.

Haslam is also the surname of former Black Caps spinner Mark Haslam. I don’t know whether they were related as Mark Haslam was born in England.

Harry Haslam was born in Christchurch on 13 July 1874. His father was Charles Haslam, an old Nelsonian. Early in his life, the family moved to Wellington where his father found work as a supervisor in the Hannah and Company’s boot factory. He was educated at Mt Cook Boys’ School and later NewtownSchool before beginning his training into the WesleyanChurch ministry. He became a member of the Wesleyan Literary and Debating Society in the early-mid 1890s, did acting for them and edited their journal, which also printed some of his early poems. He moved to Auckland to continue his training for the ministry and attended AucklandUniversityCollege graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1900. He served out his probationary years in Wellington until stationed to Christchurch. In 1903, his poem ‘A Bike Race’ appeared in the Canterbury College Review while he was living there.

Haslam married Florence Elizabeth Hurlstone in 1904 and had two children: Eric Haslam and Gladys Hayman (née Haslam). He worked as a Methodist Church minister stationed in different areas of New Zealand (including Bunnythorpe 1913-17 and Waimate 1926-1929) rising to distinction in the Methodist Church as secretary and later president of Conference. Haslam was also a Methodist marriage celebrant.

He was also a member of the Savage Club and the Masonic Lodge and played music. His obituary notes: ‘He was for many years a member of the St Paul’s Choir and entertained at concerts with violin solos.’ He could play the piano in his later years for hymn singing.

One book of his poetry, Scenes in Southland, appeared in London in 1926 that includes his cricket sonnet ‘Ambition’. He must’ve been in Southland before moving to Waimate. He is chiefly a sonneteer working over spiritual themes and the universal subjects of love and death. Other topics include war, and literature, and there is a section of lighter verse possibly written in his younger years. Some poems certainly date back to his student years in Auckland. The strongest of his sonnets relate to the death of a close friend before 1926.

His other publications include contributing WestlandMethodistChurch history material by the Rev. G S Harper (1840-1911) to the Wesley Church History Society as well as editing Harper’s Gold Diggings and the Gospel: The Westland Diary of the Rev. G. S. Harper, 1865-66.

Haslam retired to Waimate in 1940 where he lived out the remaining years of his long life. His wife Florence died in 1958. Towards the end of his life, his eyesight went and his obituary notes: ‘it was his deep regret that he became divorced from his books’.

It’s certain that Haslam known as Harry to his friends played cricket as a young man for the Wesley Cricket Club in Wellington and enjoyed other sports such as tennis. He continued to play at cricket matches organised by delegates to Methodist conferences. One of these matches between a Wednesday Association and a Clergyman’s Eleven (that included Haslam) was played at the Basin Reserve (Evening Post, 15 February 1913). Newspaper match reports indicate that he could bat and bowl and obviously studied and kept up with the game. His cricket sonnet shows a sense of wide reading and knowledge.

It’s a very interesting piece as it discusses Sir Jack Hobbs whose batting ambition surpassed W G Grace’s records. For years W G known as The Champion and The Great Cricketer seemed an unsurpassable magician with his willow wand on uncovered pitches overshadowing his elder brother E M Grace, himself a significant English batsman. Hobbs became The Master.

A very good biography by Simon Rae discusses W G Grace’s life in depth, including his double-life as a doctor and cricketer and his awe-inspiring records made on poor pitch surfaces in 19th century England. Hobbs and others like the Australian Victor Trumper were also great players on uncovered pitches. Sir Don Bradman of course eclipsed them all but by the start of his era pitches were beginning to be covered and a majority of Bradman’s scoring records were on good pitches. This next leads to the question of how good and quick were the bowling attacks between the 19th and 20th centuries. I'd say bowlers like Larwood were faster in Bradman's era.

Here is Haslam’s sonnet; the opening line is from Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, Act III, Scene 2:

About Me

Mark Pirie is an internationally published New Zealand poet, anthologist, literary critic, writer and publisher with a special interest in cricket poetry. In 2010 he edited and published 'A Tingling Catch': A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009. Mark's previous anthology of New Zealand Science Fiction poetry, co-edited with Tim Jones and published by IP, Brisbane, won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collected Work 2010. His publishing company is HeadworX Publishers: http://headworx.eyesis.co.nz As a publisher and author he has over 100 titles listed in the National Library of New Zealand. His website is www.markpirie.com His other interests are popular music. In 2010 he helped co-organise the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA). Web site: http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com